For a second time in a month, a group of Killian residents will go to County Hall Tuesday morning to try to fight the proposed development of a two- and three-story, 216-bed assisted living facility with a 126-space underground parking garage in their mostly residential neighborhood.
Miami-Dade Commissioners will consider changing the Comprehensive Development Master Plan and zoning for the vacant 1.6-acre lot on Southwest 122nd Street, just off the South Dade busway, and near Vineland Elementary School, from residential to commercial.
More than 800 nearby residents have signed a petition saying please don’t. More than 50 of them spoke at the CDMP meeting last month that ended with no vote for lack of quorum. They mostly wore white shirts to show their numbers and brought a power point presentation with slides that show the current traffic issues and how narrow the street is.
One by one, they told the commissioners that this project would destroy their quiet neighborhood. One by one they all said that the property should be developed into 6 duplexes for a total of 12 homes (the developer asked for 12), a change in zoning that was approved in 2015.
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“Now, nine years later, the same developer wants permission to build a preposterous project which is profoundly inappropriate for this residential neighborhood,” said Lou Pringle, who has lived in the area for 31 years, seven doors from the proposed ALF. “If this project is approved, we the residents will be the victims — not for a week, not for a month, not for a year, but in perpetuity.”
One by one they called the owner and applicant a “speculator” and, in a very organized manner, went through the different reasons that the change in zoning should be denied:
- Increased traffic on an already problematic street, including “huge, noisy trucks delivering food, medical supplies and maintenance supplies,” said Steven Hagwell. “Even more trucks will be carting away trash and hazardous medical waste. Ambulances will be coming at all hours of the day and night.”
- Safety for neighborhood children in an area with two schools. “A huge risk to our children walking home from school and playing in the playground thats adjacent to the property,” said Vanessa Contreras.
- The proposed height, at three stories on the U.S. 1 side, is incompatible with the neighborhood.
- ALF residents will not be using the transitway, which is one of the reasons why the applicant says the project should move forward.
- The proposed underground parking requires the excavation of practically the entire site and some residents worry about intrusion into the waterline.
- The destruction of tree canopy. There are royal poincianas and oak trees on the property. “Looking west from U.S. 1 are single family homes as far as the eye can see,” said Rosemary Pringle. “We moved here for the majestic oak trees, the tranquility and the excellent school district.”
- The area has become more residential since the Centris community development was built on the site of the former paint-testing field.
- A critical housing shortage means the property should remain residential
Furthermore, they said that the covenant reached in 2015 should remain because that is what was promised. Ron Sternberg said he specifically looked at the development plans before he bought his home in Centris.
“It provided me with assurance that the lot across from my residence would be developed into a duplex, harmonizing with the aesthetic and density of our new community,” Sternberg told commissioners last month. “Should this application proceed, it would not only contradict the developer’s written commitment, but also undermine the trust placed in our zoning process.”
Michael Garcia-Castillo, CEO of GC3 Group developers — which has built a lot of homes in Miami-Dade — purchased the property in 2014 for $500,000. That’s foresight. Today, the assessed value is $1.5 million, but the market value must be way higher. He didn’t speak at the meeting.
His lobbyist, Melissa Tapanes, did. She said that the owners at Centris had been given a notice of disclosure that the project was a possibility and showed it in her own slide show.
Tapanes also said a “change in circumstances” since 2015 resulted in the change in plans. The main one was the establishment of the county’s SMART Plan for transit in 2015, the establishment of the Transportation Improvement District in 2018 and the amendment to the CDMP in 2019 to encourage mixed use in the Rapid Transit Activity Corridor (busway).
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“This is what the SMART plan intended to do,” Tapanes said, showing stills of news footage of police arresting people who run unlicensed, unsafe and illegal homes for the aged. “The alternative is what we see in police raids on the evening news,” she said, quite dramatically.
She also seems to have bussed in a bunch of “pro ALF” residents, many who didn’t speak English and needed an interpreter, some who live in the very same apartment building on 139th and 90th Avenue, which is not very close. A lot of them didn’t have to give their addresses at all, which the Killian residents complained about.
Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert, who cut off several residents, said they didn’t have to because their addresses were on a card. But what Gilbert needs to understand is that this is the public comment time. People in the audience and at home are also paying attention. We don’t have the luxury of the speaker cards. So we need the address stated, as Gilbert makes many other people do. Why the change for this group?
David Winker, the attorney for the concerned Killian residents, said that Tapanes made “a number of misrepresentations about the project and the process,” in her presentation and he wants five minutes on Tuesday to make clarifications, “so that the Commissioners can make an informed decision based upon correct factual information.”
One glaring example is when Tapanes says that a new covenant will protect the neighbors from the property being up zoned yet again, something many fear.
This is perhaps the most shameless claim,” Winker wrote in his Monday letter to commissioners, “given that it is now asking the Commission to allow it to evade the covenant into which it entered in 2015 for this site. Clearly, the applicant believes that covenants are not worth the paper on which they are written.”
The CDMP meeting on Tuesday begins at 9 a.m. at County Hall, 111 NW First St., and can be seen on public access TV or streamed online on the county’s website.
Letter from David Winker to the Miami-Dade commissioner re Proposed ALF in Killian by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Killian homeowners fight proposed ALF at County Hall — again added by Ladra on
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